Challenges of Helping

John Bennett/ May 10, 2020/ Development, Executive Coaching, Leadership, Teaching

As human beings, we often strive to be helpful. We may do this in one or more of our roles as a friend, colleague, manager, peer, coach, consultant, parent, sibling, etc. In his book, Helping, Edgar Schein (2007) wrote about the imbalance that occurs when a helping relationship emerges. This imbalance involves the person being helped as a “down” or “subordinated” position (NOTE: this is not “subordinate”). Most of us

If We Had Only Known: Experiences from Use of Self Educators

The following appears in Organization Development Review, Winter/Spring 2020, Volume 52 Number 1. It is co-authored by myself and Heather Berthoud. A PDF of the formatted article as it appears in the review is available here. ______________ Every day we use our “self”. How did we learn to do this consciously? And, how can we teach others to be more aware